Iraq Standing Up -- For Iran
The United States has wanted an independent Iraqi government to make it's own decisions about the future.
Somehow, I don't think this is what we had in mind.
Iraq's foreign minister said Friday that Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses but that he hoped for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has strained Iran's relations with the United States.
"We think there is a principle, which is that the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries have the right to possess nuclear technology if it is for peaceful purposes," Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said at a televised news conference in Baghdad with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.
At the same news conference, Mottaki said Iran had changed its stance on holding direct talks with the United States on the Iraq situation. "The American side tried to use this decision as propaganda, and they raised some other issues," he said. "They tried to create a negative atmosphere, and that's why the decision which was taken is suspended for the time being."
While trying to assuage fears that the United States and Iran are headed for war, Mottaki renewed Iranian vows that force would be met with force.
"The risk of a confrontation is minimal," Mottaki said, "but in the event that Americans attack Iran from anywhere, Iran will respond by attacking them in the place that we were attacked from."
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad declined to comment on the foreign ministers' statements...
Zebari's statement was a surprising show of independence from the United States, the main backer of the newly formed Iraqi government. The United States has roughly 133,000 troops in Iraq and has poured more than $20 billion into reconstruction of the country's decrepit infrastructure.
Somehow, I don't think this is what we had in mind.
Iraq's foreign minister said Friday that Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses but that he hoped for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has strained Iran's relations with the United States.
"We think there is a principle, which is that the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries have the right to possess nuclear technology if it is for peaceful purposes," Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said at a televised news conference in Baghdad with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.
At the same news conference, Mottaki said Iran had changed its stance on holding direct talks with the United States on the Iraq situation. "The American side tried to use this decision as propaganda, and they raised some other issues," he said. "They tried to create a negative atmosphere, and that's why the decision which was taken is suspended for the time being."
While trying to assuage fears that the United States and Iran are headed for war, Mottaki renewed Iranian vows that force would be met with force.
"The risk of a confrontation is minimal," Mottaki said, "but in the event that Americans attack Iran from anywhere, Iran will respond by attacking them in the place that we were attacked from."
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad declined to comment on the foreign ministers' statements...
Zebari's statement was a surprising show of independence from the United States, the main backer of the newly formed Iraqi government. The United States has roughly 133,000 troops in Iraq and has poured more than $20 billion into reconstruction of the country's decrepit infrastructure.
posted by Effwit at 9:42 AM
8 Comments:
LOL.
But as for Chad's threats; well, he must be meaning retaliating on bigger strikes cuz we're already dicking around deep inside Iran with various military assets. They too know how to talk da talk.
Speaking of which. Remember when UBL demaded that the US withdraw its military presence from Saudi Arabia? Well it just struck me the other day that it's 1-0 for UBL because sure enough, and despite vows not to give into the demands of terrorists, we are now more or less outta S.A. Are we not?
We believe supposedly in magic markets and invisible guiding hands and the godless evils of governmental and regulatory intervention, less everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
Yet we meddle like evolution stoking Leninists in matters of foreign policy upon which things almost always, and completely, f*ck up as we become embroiled in endless rounds of crisis management/exploitation emanating from those first interventions.
We meddle and it never turns out the way things we're imagined. Often matters only become so much worse than we defined them at any outset.
In one sense, and so far, Iran has won their war with Iraq (thanks America) and now the Iran friendly Shiites have no problems with Iran and nuclear juice. Well ain't that just the way the dice always seem to roll.
M1: Some say that is why the U.S. attacked Iraq (or, at least, one of the multitude of reasons), in order to eliminate Saddam's "imminent threat" to S.A., thereby allowing U.S. forces to vacate the kingdom.
Just one more reason why, I believe, the Saudis and the Israelis were complicit - among conspicuous others - in initiating all of this on a sunny September morn nearly a quarter score ago.
M1:
Absolutely. The informed word around Washington is that the Saudi's basically kicked us out of SA starting shortly after 9-11.
The monarchy could read the writing on the wall, and wanted UBL to know that they were willing to play ball.
The U.S. government will never admit that this happened. But why else weren't we allowed to use the bases that we had built in SA for launching and supporting our little picnic in March 2003?
So, yes, UBL got what he wanted. No doubt.
Perhaps the Iraqi foreign minister hath forgotten where his bread is buttered? Or, perhaps, the butter hath spoiled in the broiling heat of the Iraqi battlefields.
M1:
There were people predicting before this Iraq war that things would turn out pretty much as they have.
The neo-cons knew enough to be able to ignore the warnings.
DrewL:
IIRC, we were already being shown the door prior to the start of this Iraq war.
This, of course, does not invalidate the thesis you mention. It actually seconds your point by helping to explain the rush to war.
DrewL:
I think the FM knew exactly what he was doing. This basically shows the lessening influence (believe it or not) of the U.S. now in Iraq.
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